Automobile storage structure



p 12, 1955 T. E. MORRISON 2,706,054

AUTOMOBILE STORAGE STRUCTURE Filed Jan. 5, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 /F (lg 7 23 w INVENTOR.

filo/ms E. Maze/501v Jammy April 12, 1955 T. E. MORRISON AUTOMOBILE STORAGE STRUCTURE s Sheets-Shet 2 Filed Jan. 5, 1952 IN V EN TOR.

E. Mame/501v sflttorniy April 1955 'r. E. MORRISON 2,706,054

AUTOMOBILE STORAGE STRUCTURE Filed Jan. 5, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 71/1 INVENTOR. g 72/0/9205 f/Waflmsa/v fl' United States Patent AUTOMOBILE STORAGE STRUCTURE Thomas E. Morrison, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application January 5, 1952, Serial No. 265,141

Claims. (Cl. 214-16.1)

This invention relates in general to and has for an object the provision of an automobile storage structure but more particularly embodying a rotatable unit with a plurality of platforms which are together rotatable with the unit and are separately rotatable on the unit in order to maintain their horizontality during the bodily rotation of the unit while wholly or partly loaded or unloaded.

The primary purpose of this invention is to facilitate parking or storage of vehicles in congested areas through the use of a fully automatic wheel-like structure which may be incorporated in the foundation of new buildings when the ground floor is used as a parking area by the employment of as many and as large wheels as may be practicable and with said wheels arranged on or near the outer walls so that the central area of the building may be used as a driveway or approach to the storage unit or such a structure may be erected on a plot of ground wholly above the surface or partly below the surface.

An important object is to provide means including a carrier frame of circular or polygonal form of honeycomb characteristics with a platform in each of its cells and preferably tubular cells geometrically arranged around a common axis with each cell separately rotatable on its axis and enclosing a platform for supporting one or more vehicles in upright positions regardless of its individual position on the wheel-like frame. To such end a stabilizer frame is provided on an axis eccentric to that of the carrier frame and serves as a guide for arms axially fixed to the cell tubes for at all times maintaining the vehicles in upright positions.

A further object is to provide a stationary support for rotatably receiving the carrier and stabilizer frames and an approach or approaches spaced from said stationary support axially of the carrier frame and arranged to register with the platforms of as many vehicle cells as may be found practicable, in order that loading and unloading of the carrier may be expedited. For such purpose also, the vehicle cells are geometrically arranged on the carrier in uniformly spaced positions radially and otherwise so that a fractional rotation of the carrier will aline and register a maximum number of cell platforms with one or more ramps or approaches.

Another object is to Wholly or partly mount the carrier beneath the surface of the ground or a floor and to arrange the supporting frame and stabilizer frame rearwardly of closed ends of the cells, thereby rendering opposite open ends of the cells readily accessible to the ingress and egress of vehicles and without obstruction.

A still further object is to axially support the cells at their closed rear ends on the supporting frame and peripherally at their front open ends as by means of rollers.

An object also is to support the carrier peripherally as by means of circular rails at its front and rear sides and rollers spaced apart over a range of the lower half, or thereabout, of said rails.

Finally it is an object to provide a prime mover and driving connections therewith including a circular band or rack extending around the carrier and engaged by driving gear or friction pulley operatively connected with the prime mover.

Other objects may appear as the description progresses.

I have shown a preferred form of structure embodying my invention in the accompanying drawings, subject to modification, within the scope of the appended claims,

2,706,054 Patented Apr. 12, 1955 without departing from the spirit of the invention. 831d drawings:

F g. 1 is a front elevational view;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view showing details of the vehicle carrier;

Flg. 3 is a cross sectional view of the same on line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an end elevational view;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of one of the vehicle cells;

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation of the unit on line 6-6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view of one of the circular rails cooperating with spaced rollers, not shown, for rotatably supporting the carrier; and

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic face view of the carrier and stabilizer frames; and

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a carrier with a single cell or platform thereon showing relative positions of the carrier and the cell at different stages of rotation of the carrier.

As shown and at times desirable, a storage unit em bodying my improvements includes a stationary frame or spaced concrete walls A, A, or a fabricated frame imbedded in concrete walls, but in either or any case constituting a stationary support, or supports designed to rotatably support a circular or polygonal carrier B and a companion guide or stabilizer C, either or both of which are of skeleton form.

When arranged as shown the carrier and stabilizer are rotatably in a pit D of semi-circular form below the level of the ground or floor 2 as by means of front and rear circular rails 3 and 4, respectively resting upon and adapted to be rotated on a plurality of rollers 5, 5, etc. borne by suitable supports 6, 6, etc. on the curved bottom of pit D and other supports 6', 6', on the surface 2. Stabilizer C is rotatably supported by a trunnion 7 in a bearing 7a which is imbedded in the rear wall A.

Carrier B has at its rear side diametrical bars 8, 8, etc. connected by angular braces 9, 9, etc. and radial struts 10, 10, etc., all interconnected as shown in Fig. 6 and also connected with rails 3 and 4 and said rails being cross connected by transverse members 4', 4, so as to provide a rigid frame. At its front side, said carrier has a honeycomb structure formed by short struts 11, 11, etc. of generally uniform length joined at their intersections by gussets 12, 12, etc. so as to provide hexagonal areas therebetween and connected by tie bars 13, 13, etc. with the web 14 of rail 3. Each of said hexagonal areas has a tubular cell E with a stationary platform F cutting 01f a bxottom segment thereof and for supporting a vehicle as at Each cell E has a permanently closed rear end 15 with an axially protruding trunnion 16 in a bearing 17 of carrier B and an arm 18 radially extended from said trunnion and arranged for pivotal connection at its free end 19 to members 20, the stabilizer C as shown in Fig. 5 and hereinafter more fully described. At this point it may be noted that the distance between the axes of the points 16 and 19 is the same as between the axes of carrier B and stabilizer C. Hence, all of the cells E are parallel connected with stabilizer C and the arms 18 will always be vertically disposed and the platforms F horizontally disposed when the carrier is stationary or in motion. This feature is important because if the arrangement were otherwise the platforms would tend to tilt when one side of the carrier is loaded in excess of the other side and especially in the absence of tracks or wheel guides for the vehicle which would ensure central disposition of the vehicles in the cells E.

Preferably the tracks 3 and 4 and rollers 5 are correspondingly tapered as shown in Fig. 4 for preventing axial thrust of the carrier and smoothness of rotation.

At the front open side of the carrier an approach R, either level or in the form of one or more ramps, is provided at an elevation which will best expedite and facilitate loading of the cells E selectively.

As shown in Fig. 1 the particular arrangement of cells above the level of approach R and loadable therefrom at successively higher elevations be two, three, two and one in number of the horizontal rows of cells. When the carrier is rotated thirty degrees in a clockwise direction the number of loadable cells above the approach level would be four and three unless there was a descending ramp leading to the diametrical row of five cells. Each successive turn of the carrier to an extent of thirty degrees would repeat the said two conditions successively.

Power is imparted to the carrier from a motor M, through a worm W meshing with a circular rack G which extends peripherally around the carrier and is supported on the cross members 4'; or in lieu of said gear and rack a frictional pulley and band may be used in some cases.

As shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the cells E are rotatably mounted on the carrier by rollers 22, which are borne by pins 23 held at opposite ends in the spaced gusset plates 1212 at each joint of the members 11.

In operation with the structure arranged as shown in Figs. 1 and 4 the rotary movement of the carrier may be controlled by any suitable electrical mechanism with or without employment of annunciators or indicators for indicating the relative positions of the cells E on the wheel and also for indicating the presence or absence of vehicles in the cells in order that an operator may, by pushbutton or other type of control, rotate the carrier to a desired extent for aifording access to a maximum number of cells or certain desired cells upon a fractional rotation of the carrier in either direction although these features are not important to the invention as herein set forth. Upon energization of the motor M the rotation of the carrier is instituted at a suitable speed through the engagement of the worm W with the ring gear G.

Obviously as the carrier B and stabilizer C are together rotated on their separate axes the differential of their relative rotary movements is elfective through the connections between the carrier and the stabilizer, namely the arms 18, for rotating each of the cells E a fraction of a revolution relative to each complete revolution of the carrier, the extent of rotation of the cells being determined by the specific connections between the cells and the stabilizer but in all events and regardless of the direction of movement in simulation of what is well known as parallel motion, the approach R obviously may be subdivided into a plurality of ascending, descending or both ascending and descending ramps for the purpose of loading as many of the cells E at one stoppage of the carrier as may be desired or practicable.

For instance, as viewed in Fig. 1, if the nominal level of the approach R corresponded to the level of the platforms of the three diametrically alined cells E, vehicles could be driven directly from the horizontal surface R into said three cells but if ascending ramps were provided for the two horizontally alined cells E next above the diametrical row and two descending ramps were alined with the two horizontally alined cells immediately below the center row, it would be possible to load seven of the cells at one stoppage of the carrier.

By reference to Fig. 9 it will be observed that the cells E are constantly and positively maintained in similar positions with platforms F horizontal on the carrier regardless of whether the carrier is stationary or moving, in the same manner as they would be held by the force of gravity were the connections 18 between the cells and the stabilizer omitted. Without the connections 18, however, the cells would tend to swing like the cabs of a Ferris wheel during rotation of the carrier and the vehicles on the platforms F might be displaced. With the connections 18 swinging of the cells is prevented and horizontality is positively maintained at all times.

In Fig. 9 only one cell E is shown-in full lines at noon position, and in broken lines at two, four, six, eight and ten oclock positions, successively. As indicated by horizontal lines representing the platforms at such positions and a single line 1 on the carrier B it will be noted that the carrier line 1 gradually moves away from the platform line F as the carrier is rotated in a clockwise direction and that in each complete revolution of the carrier each cell is moved on the carrier or the carrier relative to the cell to the extent of one complete revolution of a cell, depending upon how one may view the operation. In no event, however, may the cells swing from positions of universal horizontality, due to their multiple connections in parallel with the relatively eccentric stabilizer.

Otherwise the structure may be varied in its details and features from the form herein shown to meet varying conditions of use, size of structure, cost and other tag:-

tors but the essence of this invention is in the provision of the rotatable multi-celled carrier and stabilizer so connected and designed as to house a maximum number of vehicles with ready accessibility and expedition in loading and unloading and requiring a minimum of labor and maintenance.

I claim:

1. An automobile storage structure comprising: a stationary supporting unit including a plurality of rollers arranged in transversely spaced groups and at equal radial distances from a common central point, a carrier having front and rear circular rails rotatably supported on and concentric with said groups of rollers, said carrier having a honeycomb structure consisting of a plurality of sets of polygonally arranged interconnected bars and gussets unitarily secured to said rails to form similar polygonal areas within, and confined by said rails, secondary rollers supported on each of said gussets adjacent each of said areas a tubular cell rotatably engaging said secondary rollers and having a normally horizontal platform for supporting a car in upright position when the carrier is rotated to receive cars from and to discharge cars onto a loading and unloading surface.

2. An automobile storage structure comprising: a stationary supporting unit including a plurality of rollers arranged in transversely spaced groups and at equal radial distances from a common central point, a carrier having front and rear circular rails rotatably supported on and concentric with said groups of rollers, said carrier having a honeycomb structure consisting of a plurality of sets of polygonally arranged interconnected bars and gussets unitarily secured to said rails to form similar polygonal areas within, and confined by said rails, secondary rollers supported on each of said gussets adjacent each of said areas, a tubular cell rotatably engaging said secondary rollers and having a normally horizontal platform for supporting a car in upright position when the carrier is rotated to receive cars from and to discharge cars onto a loading and unloading surface, and a stabilizer frame rotatable on an axis parallel and eccentric to the axis of said carrier and operatively connected with all of said tubular cells for maintaining horizontality of said platforms.

3. An automobile storage structure comprising: a stationary supporting unit including a plurality of rollers arranged in transversely spaced groups and at equal radial distances from a common central point, a carrier having front and rear circular rails rotatably supported on and concentric with said groups of rollers, said carrier having a honeycomb structure consisting of a plurality of sets of polygonally arranged interconnected bars and gussets unitarily secured to said rails to form similar polygonal areas within, and confined by said rails, secondary rollers supported on each of said gussets adjacent each of said areas, a tubular cell rotatably engaging said secondary rollers and having a normally horizontal platform for supporting a car in upright position when the carrier is rotated to receive cars from and to discharge cars onto a loading and unloadmg surface, a circumferential gear on said carrier, and a prime mover drivingly connected with and for rotating said carrier in response to desired positioning of a cell to load or unload a particular car.

4. An automobile storage structure comprising: a stationary supporting unit including a plurality of rollers arranged in transversely spaced groups and at equal radial distances from a common central point, a carrier having front and rear circular rails rotatably supported on and concentric with said groups of rollers, said carrier having a honeycomb structure consisting of a plurality of sets of polygonally arranged interconnected bars and gussets unitarily secured to said rails to form similar polygonal areas within, and confined by said rails, secondary rollers supported on each of said gussets adjacent each of said areas, a tubular cell rotatably engaging said secondary rollers and having a normally horizontal platform for supporting a car in upright position when the carrier is rotated to receive cars from and to discharge cars onto a loading and unloading surface, and a stabilizer frame rotatable on an axis parallel and eccentric to the axis of said carrier and operatively connected with all of said tubular cells for maintaining horizontality of said platforms, there being a link connection between the axis of each of said cells and said stabilizer frame.

5. An automobile storage structure comprising: a stationary supporting unit including a plurality of rollers arranged in transversely spaced groups and at equal radial distances from a common central point, a carrier having front and rear circular rails rotatably supported on and concentric with said groups of rollers, said carrier having a honeycomb structure consisting of a plurality of sets of polygonally arranged interconnected bars and gussets unitarily secured to said rails to form similar polygonal areas within, and confined by said rails, secondary rollers supported on each of said gussets adjacent each of said areas, a tubular cell rotatably engaging said secondary rollers and having a normally horizontal platform for supporting a car in upright position when the carrier is rotated to receive cars from and to discharge cars onto a loading and UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,165,035 Streit Dec. 21, 1915 1,269,825 Langdon June 18, 1918 r 2,161,750 Schonwald June 6, 1939 2,297,199 Buddecke Sept. 29, 1942 

